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Romuald Świerzbieński, The Faith of the Slavs [1880]
Title: The Faith of the Slavs.
Author: Romuald Świerzbieński (Candidate of Law, Doctor of Medicine) [a nineteenth-century amateur researcher of Slavic mythology and beliefs, educated as a candidate of law and a doctor of medicine]
Publisher: Printed by S. Orgelbrand & Sons, Warsaw (20 Bednarska St.)
Year of publication: 1880.
Format: 25 cm.
Volume: [2], 42 pp.
Binding: Paperback, paper cover, standard publication format.
The full title of this work—“The Faith of the Slavs Revived from Rites, Legends, Folk Songs, Omens, Chronicles, and the Slavic Language”— —also summarizes its methodology: the author attempts to reconstruct the pre-Christian beliefs of the Slavs, drawing not on a single type of evidence but on all of them at once. The analysis of Slavic lexicon, including Old Church Slavonic, has been juxtaposed with historical sources—chronicles, annals, and letters—as well as with material from living folklore: songs, proverbs, charms, and legends. Descriptions of annual ritual festivals occupy a special place in the book: Szczodre Gody, Jare Gody (celebrated on the spring equinox), Sobótka, and the autumn equinox. The central thesis of the work is the reconstruction of “Rok” as the supreme being among the Slavs, derived from an analysis of a family of related terms: rok, rokita, rokować, wyrok, wyrocznia, urok, uroczysko, prorokini, and others. The book was published by the Warsaw-based S. Orgelbrand & Sons publishing house, one of the most important publishing houses in Warsaw at the time.
Little is known about the author himself—bibliographic catalogs list him laconically as “Świerzbieński, Romuald,” without any biographical details. The title page, however, reveals his dual academic background: he is listed there as a Candidate of Law and a Doctor of Medicine, which places him among the nineteenth-century amateur scholars who did not come from university departments. Zygmunt Gloger (1845–1910), an outstanding historian, archaeologist, and ethnographer, who wrote explicitly in his writings that Świerzbieński “builds a magnificent throne for ‘Rok’ as the supreme being among the Slavs.”
Provenance: on the reverse of the title page, a stamp reading “University Library in Lviv—Duplicate,” documenting the piece’s inclusion in the collection of the Lviv University Library and its subsequent withdrawal as a duplicate —a standard practice in academic libraries of the era (known pieces of this title bear similar withdrawal stamps from other academic libraries as well, including the National Library).
This item is of interest to researchers of Slavic mythology and religion, historians of ethnography, and collectors of Lviv-related Polish materials and publications from the Orgelbrand publishing house.
The block is intact; the paper is yellowed, with natural spots, discoloration, and soiling. The original paper cover is in good condition, with visible soiling.
Catalog ID: 9915-25-A-X
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Time, Location
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Title: The Faith of the Slavs.
Author: Romuald Świerzbieński (Candidate of Law, Doctor of Medicine) [a nineteenth-century amateur researcher of Slavic mythology and beliefs, educated as a candidate of law and a doctor of medicine]
Publisher: Printed by S. Orgelbrand & Sons, Warsaw (20 Bednarska St.)
Year of publication: 1880.
Format: 25 cm.
Volume: [2], 42 pp.
Binding: Paperback, paper cover, standard publication format.
The full title of this work—“The Faith of the Slavs Revived from Rites, Legends, Folk Songs, Omens, Chronicles, and the Slavic Language”— —also summarizes its methodology: the author attempts to reconstruct the pre-Christian beliefs of the Slavs, drawing not on a single type of evidence but on all of them at once. The analysis of Slavic lexicon, including Old Church Slavonic, has been juxtaposed with historical sources—chronicles, annals, and letters—as well as with material from living folklore: songs, proverbs, charms, and legends. Descriptions of annual ritual festivals occupy a special place in the book: Szczodre Gody, Jare Gody (celebrated on the spring equinox), Sobótka, and the autumn equinox. The central thesis of the work is the reconstruction of “Rok” as the supreme being among the Slavs, derived from an analysis of a family of related terms: rok, rokita, rokować, wyrok, wyrocznia, urok, uroczysko, prorokini, and others. The book was published by the Warsaw-based S. Orgelbrand & Sons publishing house, one of the most important publishing houses in Warsaw at the time.
Little is known about the author himself—bibliographic catalogs list him laconically as “Świerzbieński, Romuald,” without any biographical details. The title page, however, reveals his dual academic background: he is listed there as a Candidate of Law and a Doctor of Medicine, which places him among the nineteenth-century amateur scholars who did not come from university departments. Zygmunt Gloger (1845–1910), an outstanding historian, archaeologist, and ethnographer, who wrote explicitly in his writings that Świerzbieński “builds a magnificent throne for ‘Rok’ as the supreme being among the Slavs.”
Provenance: on the reverse of the title page, a stamp reading “University Library in Lviv—Duplicate,” documenting the piece’s inclusion in the collection of the Lviv University Library and its subsequent withdrawal as a duplicate —a standard practice in academic libraries of the era (known pieces of this title bear similar withdrawal stamps from other academic libraries as well, including the National Library).
This item is of interest to researchers of Slavic mythology and religion, historians of ethnography, and collectors of Lviv-related Polish materials and publications from the Orgelbrand publishing house.
The block is intact; the paper is yellowed, with natural spots, discoloration, and soiling. The original paper cover is in good condition, with visible soiling.
Catalog ID: 9915-25-A-X
Reserve
Time, Location
Auction House
